Posted by Matt Wilson on Friday, April 06, 2001 at 10:51PM :
In Reply to: Replacement Shear Pin posted by Drew Rogers on Friday, April 06, 2001 at 1:15PM :
I remember reading one time that grease should not be used in place of gear oil in a worm gear steering box. The person who made this statement said that the grease doesn't have the same flow patterns and properties as gear oil, and that this can lead to problems with the mechanicals of the steering box. (In fact it doesn't appear to flow much at all, compared to oil.)
If grease works for the extreme pressures of wheel bearings, I'm not sure why it wouldn't work in a gear drive application. The problem might be that the grease would not stand up to the sliding between the gears. There is a LOT of relative sliding between the gear surfaces in a worm gear drive.
I think a lot of people use grease in their Power Wagon steering gear boxes (including me), but I don't know if it's really a problem down the road or not. If it is, then I imagine it would be much more of a problem in a winch, where you have a worm gear spinning along at a pretty good speed.
I've heard that grease is basically oil with a thickening agent to keep it together, but I still don't know if it's a good substitute in some applications.
What does anyone else know about this??
|
Follow Ups:
This board is powered by the Mr. Fong Device from Cyberarmy.com |